ITALY: The Exploding Boots

The ladies liked Lieut. Gualtiero
Gualtierotti, a handsome cavalryman with a toothbrush mustache and a
roving eye. Behind his jingling spurs he left a trail of broken hearts.
One day in 1936 a pair of black riding boots was delivered to his
apartment in Rome. Said an accompanying note, written in a feminine
hand: "To Rome's best pair of legs, from an admirer.

In vain Gualtierotti tried to discover who had sent the boots. He was still
puzzling three months later when he was promoted to captain and
transferred to another regiment in Brescia, 275 miles away, There, for
the...